Over the past few months, we have been back on the road with Pepper & Honey touring across England to village halls and local libraries.
BOSA at Being Human Festival
On 16th November 2024, we’re pleased to be sharing our immersive audio experience at the Being Human Festival at the University of Birmingham.
BOSA means ‘barefoot’ in Croatian and is inspired by the rituals of settling in.
Up to 8 audience members are invited on a journey that is both shared with other people, and travelled in solitude. Audiences experience a rich sound journey and a gentle story spanning between faraway memories and putting your feet up after work, all whilst being guided through the experience by the Host.
Saturday 16 November 2024
Times: 1pm, 2pm, 3pm and 4pm
Venue: The Exchange, Birmingham, B1 2DR
Free but booking is essential
> Book Now
To find out more about BOSA and it’s development click here.
Pepper and Honey – Digital Premiere
Notnow Collective were delighted to receive funding from The Library Presents to create a digital version of “Pepper & Honey”. The world-premiere of Kristina Gavran’s play, delivered as a 2-part live audience experience*, took place on Saturday 12 (PART 1) and Saturday 19 (PART 2) December 2020.
Pepper & Honey had both an audio described and captioned option available for audiences.
Pepper & Honey is a poignant, subtle and timely story about trying not to feel like a foreigner in your adopted country, and the conflict between upholding the traditions of the “old country” and embracing those of the new.
Ana has been on a journey. Croatian-born, she’s arrived in the UK, determined to make it home. She is now haunted by the voice of her Grandma yearning for Ana to come home. As Grandma bakes her traditional Croatian pepper biscuits (believed to bring the loved one back home), will this be enough to be reunited with her granddaughter? Where is ‘home’ to Ana now?
*participating audiences were invited to take part in the sensory experience
The Library Presents Programme is an exciting, diverse and inclusive programme of high quality arts activities with Libraries across Cambridgeshire. Funded by Arts Council England and created in partnership with Babylon ARTS
Call out: Parent Ambassador
Notnow Collective is looking for a Parent Ambassador for our audience development programme in collaboration with Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester.
We are looking for an individual who is a parent/carer local to Leicester, and very well plugged into local parent-baby groups, activities and places and local parents network.
This is a paid opportunity on a freelance contract basis (£15 per hour) ideally suited to an individual on the parental leave, stay-at-home parent or a part-time/freelance worker. It will require about 10-12hrs of work over a period of 6 weeks.
Deadline for applications is 27th April 2018. The interviews will happen on 1st May at Attenborough Arts Centre and will be fully welcoming of children.
For more information and how to apply please check here.
The Notnow RIGHTNOW digital micro-commissions
Notnow Collective is a migrant-led organisation based in the Midlands committed to platforming the voices and work of migrant, parent and carer artists. We are currently radically re-imaging the spaces within which we create and present work.
As our response to this re-imagining we are offering three £700 micro commissions to inspire artists in playful exploration of digital medium and to re-think how you make work and how your audiences engage with it.
Who are we looking for?
- Performance Artists – Theatre Makers/Dancers/Spoken Word/Physical performers/Cabaret Artists/Drag Artists/Voice Artist/Musicians, and all other!
- People who identify as migrant or people with migrant heritage
- People who have a connection to parenting or caring (could be parents/carers, OR have people in their vicinity who are carers. Also, including those who are considering parenting or in the process of becoming parents!!)
- You might have experience of other languages or growing up speaking other languages
- You might have done some digital work or this might be your first experience
We want to support NEW IDEAS* from individuals, collectives or organisations who will use this money to develop their creative digital imagining.
What are we interested in?
- Playful work
- Work that explores parenting or caring during lockdown
- Work that explores relationships with language, separation from family, international travel bans
- Digital work – this might be pre-recorded video, zoom performances, live streams, audio, text message, VR and AR, multi platform, email- but not limited to these forms.
*NEW IDEAS or development of an EXISTING IDEA but it should not have had a finished production.
What we offer?
- cash to kick start your creative thinking or help with further funding
- artistic support & provocation
- platform for sharing your RIGHTNOW micro-commission
We particularly encourage applications from underrepresented groups.
To apply please email Expression of Interest to our Assistant Producer Nicole Roman with “RIGHTNOW” in the title line: nicole@notnowcollective.com
Expression of Interest can be written, video or voice note. Please include the following:
- What is your idea? (if it is an existing idea, please give details of the development so far and any useful links)
What form does it take?
Why do you want to make it?
(400 words max)
2. Tell us about you as an artist or company and share examples of your work (300 words max. For examples of your work please use links and supply passwords, or We Transfer/Google Drive)
3. Why does working digitally interest or excite you? (200 words max)
TIMELINE:
9th April – Deadline for submitting your Expressions of Interest
19th April – Interviews with shortlisted candidates
26th April to 24th May – Creation time for selected projects
Week of 24th May – Public presentation of the selected projects
If you have any further questions about the application, or require an alternative format please email: nicole@notnowcollective.com
Assistant Producer
We would like to invite applications for the position of ASSISTANT PRODUCER for the forthcoming digital commissions project, exploring caring/parenting as a migrant.
Notnow Collective are a Midlands based migrant-artist led organisation that place voices less heard in the centre of their work, with particular focus on advocating for parent/carer, migrant and multilingual narratives and artists.
We are looking for an early career creative, who identifies as a migrant or with migrant heritage, and who is looking to develop their producing skills.
These digital commissions are an Arts Council funded project offering seed funding for 3 selected creatives/organisations.
The fee is £1500 for 15 days of work in total between February-June 2021.
Person Specification- we are looking for:
- Someone passionate about developing work with migrant/non-UK born narratives
- Someone with an understanding of what it means to be multicultural and multilingual
- Curious about performance making in the digital environment
- Computer literate, have a good understanding of Word and Excel and happy managing social media and basic WordPress website updating skills
- Great team player, good communicator, ready to learn and share their own experience and excited to support creative journeys
- If you are Midlands based, that’s an added bonus, but we welcome applications from all over the UK.
We especially welcome applications from people with parenting/caring/homeschooling responsibilities – the work is remote and flexible around your life commitments.
Outline of the duties:
- Assisting and supporting the lead producer in delivering the digital commissions
- Leading on the admin duties throughout the artist call-out and selection process (supported by the lead producer)
- Assisting the shortlisting process (supported by the lead producer)
- Participating in the interview process (supported by the lead producer)
- Leading on the designated day to day admin tasks and social media management
- Assisting the Arts Council evaluation on this part of the activity
- Leading on the communication between NNC and commissioned artists (supported by the lead producer)
- Regular updates of activity budget
To apply please attach your CV and either answer the questions below in the word-document form, or make a sound/video recording of your answers.
Please send documents/WeTransfer or Google Docs link to: tina@notnowcollective.com with “ASSISTANT PRODUCER” in the title line.
The deadline: MIDDAY Friday 5th February.
Interviews of shortlisted candidates via Zoom (or similar platform) between 8th and 12th February.
Application questions:
- Please describe your producing/creative practice so far
(no more than 400 words, 3 mins recorded/filmed)
- Why are you interested in working with Notnow Collective and what do you hope to get out of this project? (no more than 400 words, 3 mins recorded/filmed)
- How do you fit our Person Specification? (in no more than 300 words, 2 mins recorded/filmed)
From the little’uns..
Notnow Collective did not get the ACE Emergency funding.
We cried. The uncertainty just became an even bigger space.
So now, although we are small, with no real capital or loud voice, we want to make this weird position open and transparent. Take part in the choir of those voices who are not delighted nor relieved.
Firstly, we acknowledge and are very appreciative of the immediate response that the Arts Council England offered. We are grateful for the relief of all the peers who were able to secure the funding, and will be helped to navigate these times safely.
We are humbly sharing this space now with those who profoundly feel the void.
At the point of theatres’ closure we were in the middle of touring our new show Pepper & Honey – a unique project connecting us with those who know our work, but also significantly expanding our work to new audiences up and down the country.
Our audiences took part in the story about having in common much more than what divides us.
Following the cancellations, we decided to honour our on-the-road team’s fees as much as we could, knowing how heavily they depended on those fees.
Plenty of our overhead costs simply went down the drain – it will all need paid again when the tour can be remounted.
Arts Council were great, fully understood our position and reasoning, and agreed we ring-fence the remainder of the grant they’d previously awarded us for Pepper & Honey, to resume the tour when theatres re-open. They recognised how important it is for us to reach live audiences and participants with this live event. We would also like to pride ourselves in being able to give immediate work to our freelance team again, as soon as we are good to go. We all know we’ll need it.
Right now, hanging over us are the ongoing expenses we cannot stop, avoid or reduce: they need to be extended for at least 7 months before we can resume our tour.
To finance these expenses we will either have to pay from our own pockets (as self-employed workers who have no savings and currently, no income) or we will need to cut into the ring-fenced pot, thus reducing the budget for the future tour which will mean we have to reduce the number of performances and/or the participation activity.
Inevitably, the sensation of “not being relevant enough” seeps in.
Yes, this is not a good or productive place to linger in, but we’ve arrived here, accompanied by Fear and Worry. This is an exciting place from which to reflect and regroup, once the initial tears have dried – as an arts organisation it is our strength to be change-ready. But also, this global moment exasperates a crisis deeply tied to the bare bones of survival, and unfortunately, independent entities and people are in the first line of fire.
We are a young company, made up of passionate, visionary freelancers with caring responsibilities, with four passionate, hard-core, relentless years behind us. No parent-bank roll, no granny-service. Like many from this industry (and despite business mentors telling us otherwise!), Notnow Collective is made up of many personal sacrifices, and too many long or unpaid hours. This is the reality of many in the independent theatre sector – the passion often drives us forwards. We are not alone.
We were making it work despite the challenges of lacking a support network – as our extended families live far away – juggling work, home, inflexible and expensive childcare, long hours and low incomes. We’ve set up new homes and found new communities.
Yet, we were steadily getting somewhere. We were growing.
With audiences and participants at the heart of what we are doing, we are continuously looking at how to challenge the language, the systems and the spaces that are not accessible and flexible enough.
We wanted to see a wider range of people call themselves active and happy audiences, or artists.
Over the last few weeks we have been connecting with fellow parents and carers working from home, which made us even more aware how much need there is for the work we have been developing. (This is also the cue to honour the magnificent work by Mothers Who Make, PiPA Campaign, In Good Company). Whilst acknowledging everyone’s precarious position, we are very aware how particularly compromised is the mental health of those who juggle many plates in the air, but all from the spaces of our own homes – and for some those spaces are VERY confined.
We need to process the grief. Not just for the funding we did not get, but also for all the opportunities that were laying in front of Notnow – our projects and our collaborators: excited audiences, new venues and partnerships, delicious biscuits, people seeing themselves and their stories in our own… Finding new ways to work and present work, celebrating artists who are navigating working alongside caring responsibilities, and seeing people celebrate other cultures and languages on their stages and in their communities.
A great core team complimenting each other with individual strengths and skills.
Most of all, hard work finally started giving some fruit.
(We trust that our hard work will still pay off in the future, when the tour is able to happen.)
Today we are acknowledging our Good Work Done so far, alongside the Tears and the Fears.
Tomorrow, we have to move on, one foot in front of the other, however small those steps might be.
Direction yet unknown.
Change is the only constant thing.
Radical things come out of radical times.
Although we are not sure at the moment in what capacity we will be able to exist, we want to keep connecting with people who find solace in knowing they are not alone – particularly those juggling childcare and work from home at the moment – we will release more info soon on open (Zoom) spaces we will be hosting for those who need them.
We also want to connect with more peers who have not been Emergency Funded, for joint thinking and actioning. It could be a chance to re-think our future(s) together?
Thanks for reading, and sharing this moment with us. If you recognise yourself in any of the above and want to get in touch. Write to us:
or say hello through our social media on Twitter and Facebook.
You are not alone. We are not alone.
P.S. If you felt able to donate any small amount towards our ongoing operational costs of to help see us through this hugely uncertain time, any support is enormously appreciated – we have set up a PayPal Donate link here.
Proactive Pity Party
As individuals and organisations find out if their ACE emergency funding applications were successful, positive and negative news is flooding social media. We’re entering the Post-Emergency Funding Era.
In solidarity with all the independent individuals and organisations who were unsuccessful in accessing financial support through the emergency fund, we propose a collective Zoom meeting to help us all acknowledge the positions we find ourselves in and for initiating thoughts around how we might move forwards, both collectively and as individuals.
If you think you’d find value in this, please join us. Feel free to share as much as you want to share, or just watch and listen – there is no pressure.
* Please note: this Zoom is not intended to offer legal advice about funding avenues, furlough or SEISS. If people have questions around these areas, we can collectively find someone who can help.
Zoom date: Monday 15th June 2020 at 11am
To sign up for the meeting please e-mail Tina at tina@notnowcollective.com with ‘PPP‘ in the subject line
Caring responsibilities, chaos, and pets in fully welcome in the video!
*title idea by Hannah Stone, Artistic Director of The Gramophones
Call out: Parent Ambassador for “Pepper & Honey” in Edinburgh, Feb-March 2020
Are you a parent with a young baby?
Do you attend activities and groups in Edinburgh with your baby?
If the answer is YES, you could be just what we are looking for!
Notnow Collective is looking for Parent Ambassadors for our audience development programme in collaboration with Assembly Roxy. The parent ambassador will work on helping reach audiences for Notnow Collective’s show Pepper & Honey, which will be performed at Assembly Roxy on 13 & 14 March 2020, with a ‘Bring Your Own Baby’ performance at 2pm on 14 March.
We are looking for an individual who is a parent/carer local to Edinburgh, and very well plugged into local parent-baby groups, activities and places and local parents network.
You don’t need to be from an arts background, but should be curious about widening the ways parents of young children can engage in activities that are geared at them, not just the babies.
Notnow Collective specialise in baby-friendly, baby-welcoming and baby-proof shows for adults. We welcome babies into certain performances (‘Bring Your Own Baby’ performances) in order to enable parent/carer audiences to enjoy a “great night out” during the day, without needing to spend money on childcare.
Parents of young children often feel isolated or cut off from cultural experiences, and find a great benefit in being able to come to theatre performances that are geared at them but fully welcoming of their children. At the same time, this is not something often seen or offered, and therefore we need to find ways of letting parent audiences know that this is happening in their local venue.
This is a paid opportunity requiring an estimated 10-12hrs of work for a fee of £150. Parent Ambassador activities will include:
- Taking out posters and flyers for different events and productions to different areas and places in the community.
- Spreading the word, via word of mouth, online platforms and social media, to target groups and individuals for Pepper & Honey
If you are interested in becoming a parent ambassador please email Claire, Notnow Collective Audience Development Officer – claire@notnowcollective.com. Please include your name, email address and home address and whether you are associated with a particular group or organisation in the area.
Parents in Arts – Consultation Session
Presented by Notnow Collective and In Good Company
Hosted by Derby Theatre
In response to the recent conversations around issues and challenges parents in the arts face, In Good Company and Notnow Collective have teamed up to take action!
We gathered (expecting or existing) parent/carer artists or creatives, whether currently working, on parental leave, or considering going back to work.
In this consultation session, we focused specifically on the Midlands region and the context in which local parent/carer artists, creatives, organisations and venues work.
We identified the needs and considered immediate and future actions for parent/ carer creatives in the Midlands.
The consultation was held in anticipation of a forthcoming Parent-Carer Scratch Night presented by Notnow Collective and In Good Company and hosted by Derby Theatre, which will be held on 21stSeptember 2019.
This consultation was supported by PIPA Campaign